Birri and Casa Sapukay. Resistance of Popular Inhabitance from a Sustainable Project Thought

Abstract

The work of filmmaker Fernando Birri (Santa Fe, Argentina) is an expression of exiles, marginalization, and multiple acts of resistance. In dialogue with his film production, the design of his house –Casa Sapukay– expresses in architectural terms his critical world vision about the context of America ́s Southern Cone. The analysis of his design process, reconstructed based on the letters exchanged by Birri and Engineer Ariel González, helps us understand written correspondence as a design source, method, and matter. In these letters, thought and action merge, revealing a practice where word, technique, and affection sustain the continuation of design. The paper, thus, proposes reading Casa Sapukay as a work of resistance and a sustainable design thinking exercise, with sustainability understood not as a technical attribute but rather an ethics of care and cultural consistency among profession, territory, and inhabitance.